Pretty pud night... I liked it, except for the first three hours. The main CT machine was down, and I had several CT that needed to get done. One, a floor patient, I wound up doing twice, because the new radiologist didn't like th protocol on the old machine. To make matters worse, it looked like the patient had a bleed that was mis-diagnosed on the first CT the was done three days ago.
After that, though, things were much better... I only did one ED patient after midnight until about 06:00, and I only had four ICU patients this morning.
There was some bad news, though... another tech has quit, and several waiting in line for other positions, so it looks like the place will be even more confused personnel-wise. They are now offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus for techs, and $5,000 for anyone who brings a tech in.
The problem is... who would want to come to Topeka to work, when the whole country wants techs? There is a reason for the exodus here, I think... the other hospital remains fully staffed, incidentally. Additionally, their nurses are in the midst of unionizing, so our administration is panicking along with theirs. I heard that the ED nurses and the ICU staff over there have already voted the unions in.
I used to think that unions, especially in health care, were bad, but I've kinda turned around on that, especially these last few years, with the hospitals demanding more work for less pay... more patients per nurse, to the point where they're pitifully understaffed. It seems that the good nurses leave, and the marginal ones, the ones less capable of handling the load, stay. Same thing goes for other personnel, like lab and x-ray.
In the meantime, administrative people get bonuses for saving money by denying employees ink pens and kleenex... yup, it's against policy for an employee to use a hospital kleenex to blow their nose... those are for patients only!
The upside to us being short-staffed is that I can indulge in some OT. Before long, however, I'm sure that they'll cut that off (too expensive) and cut services. They have already reduced the outpatient schedule 'cause they're short on day staff, but they can't do anything about the Emergency Department.
Anyway, I'm off to work now, and I'll probably pick up the next three evening shifts... Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. More $$$.
And, in the meantime, all of the real cool journallers are having fun at journall-com, and I don't even have time to read about it.